SOMERVILLE, Maine — John and Ann Hassett have been creating beautiful stories throughout their marriage, both in their personal lives and in print. Their latest story is told in a children's book, "The Finest Christmas Tree."
"It’s sort of based on a true story," John Hassett explained. "We lived in Somerville, Maine back in the 1980s — which is a little town in Lincoln County — and our neighbor became a dear friend. He was a retired dairy farmer and he also cut Christmas trees for Boston Market back in the '50s and the '60s and into the 1970s, so we got to watch him cut Christmas trees and haul them out on the back of his wagon that he pulled with his 1950 John Deere tractor."
"So the book in some ways wrote itself. It was just there," he said.
The storyline follows "farmer Tuttle" and his love for selling trees to families and neighbors. As the years go by, he realizes that more and more people are buying fake trees, which is hurting his business. Never fear, though, a special visitor helps turn things around.
"I think we want people to have a feeling when they read it, just sort of a Christmasy feeling, and that really depends on who's reading it," said Ann.
"There’s something about the smell of a real tree. There’s this neighbor, this friend of ours, during the whole month of December he'd come and visit us and his coat would smell like a Christmas tree. He would smell like balsam fir," added John, saying the illustrations came so easily to him.
"It was great fun doing it because it was a place I knew so well and a person I knew so well, and loved," said John.
"It makes our Christmas fun having the book in print, and talking with people about it adds to our Christmas," Ann said.
"I think for us, the children as our audience is really important," said Ann. "Just putting these books in children’s hands, whether it’s finding that some of our books are funny — we hope that children find them funny — or just creating a feeling for children and helping them to love to be read to, or read themselves, it has been really wonderful."